Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Mechanic
For the depreciation of the Leaf I drive my Mirage. The difference in property taxes and insurance compared to a Leaf, pays for my fuel up to 15k miles a year. The wife can keep driving her car longer which saves her much of the depreciation, keeping the car 7 or 8 years instead of replacing it every 3-4.
Obviously a much different situation from yours.
Sounds like a Leaf will work, but look at the total cost of ownership, with buying used the first step.
regards
mech
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Thanks! My next choice would ba a Mirage! The biggest thing that attracts (and repels) me from getting a Leaf is the cold weather. It's below 0°F most all January and February. On the one hand it would be nice to have instant heat. On my ICE car I do use a block heater. But it doesn't heat up the engine enough for instant heat even though I have a 1,500 watt model (normal they're 300 or 400W.) And I can't always plug in my vehicle everywhere I park. I figure that what I pay already in running the block heater I could just charge an electric car. The other thing is that there's an anti-idling law here. And with the town so small I don't ever get my car up to running temperature. Basically I scrape off the ice, drive to work freezing, trying not to breath on the windshield, and right as I'm pulling into the parking lot I can finally feel a twinge of heat. Mind you the temp gauge hasn't even moved yet, but I'm at work and I now have to turn off the car. Since I drive home after dark the return drive is worse. And this is the way it is in any car I've driven, although the big inefficient V8's do warm up a bit better than the little four cylinder cars that I prefer.
Of course the downside to having an electric car where it's so cold is the range. But with my 10 miles or less that I drive per day I don't think that would be a problem in a Leaf. If I do decide to keep an ICE car I'm going to have to get 1) a heated steering wheel, 2) heated seats and 3) and fuel burning engine preheater. But by the time I do all that a nice 2013 Leaf for $8,000 sounds pretty good to me.